Now I See
by xfmoon
Summary: Jane is helping Lisbon move out of her motel room and into an apartment, but things doesn't go exactly as planned.


**A/N: **Set sometime after 'Green thumb' and it's AU 'cause our heroes are together. So prepare for a little fluffiness, and there's a little drama in here too (just to make sure you don't get bored, I can't have you falling asleep on me).

******Spoilers: **Up to and including what we've seen of season 6 until now.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Mentalist and I know nothing about Feng Shui.

* * *

_"New town, new life, new apartment, so why the old blinds?"_ He poked around at them a bit, while she emptied some more cardboard boxes. _"This one even has a hole in it... jeez how long have you had these?"_

_"Hey... I didn't invite you here to criticize my things."_ She playfully slapped him over the arm.

_"Really, so why did you invite me?"_

_"You're the mentalist, you should know why."_

He unexpectedly encircled her from behind which made her let out a small yelp._ "Because I'm so devilishly charming, you just couldn't bear to be without me."_

_"Nope."_

_"Because you're so charming, I couldn't be without you."_

_"Nice try, but still no." _She slapped his hands away and he let her go.

_"Because I'm a Feng shui master?" _He said with confidence.

_"Really? Are you sure about that?" _She wasn't that easy to get one over on. He still nodded ferociously though playing the part, she shook her head and rolled her eyes. _"Try again." _

_"Hmm, is it because I brought food?" _

_"Oh please," _she shook her head resignedly._ "There's a great Chinese place just around the corner."_

_"Okay then, I give up. Why am I here?" _

_"To help me carry the boxes and unpack them of course."_

_"Ahh of course..."_ his exaggerated surprise was not lost on her."_But if you just wanted brute force you could have called Cho."_

_"Yeah like he doesn't have better things to do on a Saturday."_

_"And I don't?"_ He played insulted for all but 10 seconds before he continued._ "Well then what about Abbott?" _

_"Abbott?! Are you serious? As if I'm going to call up my... our boss, and say 'oh hi Dennis, I'm now officially moving out of my motel room and into an apartment, because the consultant you hunted down and found on a deserted island, who then later blackmailed you into letting me work here, insisted that I buy said apartment and make a home for myself immediately. Will you come help me carry up some boxes?'"_

_"I'm sure he'd be delighted. But you know, technically the island wasn't deserted and blackmail or no the fact is he got a very valuable asset when he hired you."_

She rolled her eyes yet again.

_"And" h_e added _"you're cute too."_

Against her better judgment she smiled. _"Stop trying to flatter me. You're not getting out of helping. Now give me a hand with this box." _

_"I love it when you get all authoritarian on me."_

_"I know." _She interrupted.

_"But we really need to get you some drapes or something, instead of those old things."_ He pointed at the blinds. _"Something with a big flowery design, preferably in some bright colors, to lighten up the room a bit, venetian blinds are just so impersonal and cold."_

_"Enough with the decoration tips, Jane. I happen to like my blinds."_

_"Fine. But this box is sooo heavy." _He whined.

_"You're such a wimp. Next time I need someone with upper body strength I'll call Fischer." _

_"Fischer?!"_ He asked incredulously. _"Now you're just trying to hurt my male pride."_

_"Your what now?" _She teased.

_"You know 'Rawrr',"_ He made tiger claws to go with the sound, _"the caveman instinct and all that jazz."_

_"Rawrr?!"_ She raised an eyebrow. _"Are you a dinosaur or a caveman?"_

_"How about a little bit of both."_ He said chasing after her which resulted in the unpacking being momentarily put on standby.

**xXx**

Later when they resumed their unpacking duties, a lot of things happened very fast, and in extremely close succession. First Lisbon called his name after which she practically launched herself at him, tackling him to the ground. Following this he heard around five gunshots. Next thing he knew Lisbon was low crawling to the table where she had left her phone earlier and calling for help or backup or both.

Frankly at this point Jane was rather confused by the whole thing, so he felt blessed for the fact that Lisbon's cop instinct had kicked in immediately upon sensing danger. What he didn't like was the fact that somebody was shooting into her new apartment. Sure she was a cop, but they hadn't been in town long enough to have made any mortal enemies yet. Or so he'd thought, this might imply otherwise.

First things first, at the moment someone was trying to break down the door, while Lisbon was frantically trying to locate her gun in between the mess and clutter of moving boxes. She found it and stumbled back to where he was sitting on the floor. Only then did he notice she'd actually been hit, it looked like merely a grace, but the sight of blood on her still made his stomach churn and his throat clench, threatening to almost choke the life out of him._ "You're bleeding."_ He said barely registering that she was yelling at him to move back and take cover. She followed his eyes to her arm, then looked back again making sure to make eye contact, and for a second her toughness melted away and concern for him shone through. _"It's nothing." _She assured him. And then she was all business again. _"Now move!"_

He did as he was told, this was no time to argue. So he hid like a coward in the farthest corner behind Lisbon and her gun. He found some comfort in the fact that at least the door was sturdy since they hadn't gotten through it yet, but by the looks of it, it was only a matter of time. When it finally gave way and two masked men entered they were closely followed by a small army of men yelling _"FBI, FBI, GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!"_ Lisbon who had been sitting arms outstretched, gun ready, shielding Jane, let her arms fall with a big thud. Her arms suddenly feeling very heavy with the abrupt lack of adrenaline flowing through her veins.

As the perpetrators were hauled away someone asked:_ "You guys okay?" _Jane recognized it as being Fischer's voice.

_"Yeah we're fine."_ Lisbon brushed her off.

Jane disagreed and pointed at Lisbon's arm. _"I think we need someone to take a look at that."_ He avoided the word doctor on purpose knowing neither of them made very good patients. Lisbon's white shirt had by now taken on a scarlet color on her upper right arm. It wasn't a pretty sight.

_"Looks nasty."_ Fischer said.

_"It's just a grace. It looks worse than it is." _Lisbon said stubbornly dismissive.

Fischer knew that Lisbon was most likely right, she was a trained field agent after all. But looking at Jane's expression that was almost pleading her to help him, help Lisbon, Fischer said while leading Lisbon away:_ "Come on we'll find someone to patch you up. Besides Abbott will kill me if it gets infected and you don't show up for work on Monday."_

_"Yeah you're probably right."_ Lisbon said and added. _"That was one hell of a quiet moving weekend."_ That earned her a few sideways smiles and snickers.

After she had been patched up, Jane seemed to be breathing easier.

_"Who were those men?"_ Lisbon asked Fischer.

_"Remember that gang leader we arrested last week, this was some of his followers."_

_"How did they get her address?" _Jane asked with obvious concern in his voice._ "She is only just moving in." _

_"We don't know..."_ Fischer paused for half a second then added a reassuringly _"yet."_

Jane wasn't so easily comforted. _"Maybe we should move you to a motel."_ Fischer pondered.

_"Out of the question."_ Lisbon said promptly. _"They're not going to bully me out of my own home."_

_"Okay, how about this then; it'll just be for the night, until we get all the windows, the door and wherever else there's a bullet hole in fixed." _Jane pushed.

_"Oh all right."_ This did seem to make the most sense, so Lisbon agreed.

**xXx**

_"This was not how I pictured our first night in my new apartment."_ Lisbon sulked as they drove to the motel.

_"Me neither."_ Jane said with a mischievous grin on his face that ended up earning him a slap on the arm. _"Ouch!"_

_"Oh stop whining, I'm the one that got shot, remember?"_

_"Yeah that might be true, but you did tackle me pretty hard. And I think you just slapped me on my bruise." _He pouted to underline the wounded puppy effect.

That trick wasn't going to work on Lisbon though. _"Well how about next time I'll just let you get shot then." _

_"Ouch. You know, words hurt just as much as actual physical abuse, Lisbon. Didn't you learn that in your anger management class?"_

She just rolled her eyes at him. He briefly wondered if her eyes ever got tired of that particular movement, any form of prolonged repetition are never good.

Silence ruled the car for a few miles until Jane asked: _"How did you know?"_

_"Know what?"_

_"To duck and cover. I mean, there were no warning signs, I heard no noises, no anything. They were just suddenly there. Shooting at us."_

Raising both hands each with two outstretched fingers she pointed them towards her head and said: _"I'm psychic, didn't you know?"_ then she smiled widely and looked back out on the flat landscape.

_"Yeah you must be."_ He said smiling back at her._ "But no seriously, how did you do it."_

_"Ahh a magician never reveals her tricks."_ This was not something that happened everyday - him not knowing - she felt rather smug, so she was going to keep it up for a bit.

_"Come on."_ He pleaded.

_"It's just killing you, isn't it?... Not knowing."_

_"If I say 'yes', then will you tell me?"_

_"Maybe." _She teased.

_"You know I'm going to get payback for this later, right."_

This made her snap out of her little reverie of malicious delight. _"What exactly do you mean with payback?"_

_"You'll just have to wait and see. Now if you tell me right now then I might just settle for some light Abbott teasing, otherwise I might go for harassing a witness or poking a bigwig or..."_

_"Okay, okay you win, you've made your point. Just know I'm doing this under protest. This is blackmail."_

_"This is not a court of law. Your protests are invalid. And you, my dear, started this."_

_"Fine I'll tell you, but it looks like we're here."_ They had at long last reached the motel. She sighed having just escaped one motel she was about to check into another. She really missed having a place to call home, almost two years in Washington had spoiled her in that department. She might not have a big house with a cozy fireplace here in Austin, but she had really loved her little new apartment, until those thugs had decided to make Swiss cheese out of it.

Jane parked the car and after they got their key, had taken their overnight bags into the little room and Jane had tested the quality of the bedsprings, Lisbon said: _"Remember my blinds?"_

_"Yes, what about them?"_

_"Remember the hole?"_

_"Of course I d..."_ He trailed of as the epiphany hit him.

_"I saw the light when their car drove up and then I saw them getting out and the rest is history."_ She explained.

_"Okay."_ He said pensively. _"I take it back. I take it all back."_

_"Take what back?"_ She asked confused. He did have a knack of being cryptic, even to her sometimes.

_"You can keep the blinds, there's no need for any flowery curtains. You were right and I was wrong. I'll keep my mouth shut about your décor from now on."_

Lisbon almost had to do a double take. _"What was that last part again?"_

_"I'll keep my mouth shut."_

_"Yes and before that."_

_"I was wrong."_

_"And..." _She urged him further.

_"And... You were right."_ He finally conceded.

_"Now, don't you forget it!" _She tried to sound menacing, but with the smile she wore on her face it was hard to take her serious.

He held up his arms in surrender. _"I won't. I swear." _

_"Ah don't bother Jane, I know you too well. Tomorrow all this will have escaped the nights lockdown of your memory palace and you'll be back to thinking you're the only one that's always right."_

_"Hey, that's so not true."_

_"No? So what happened to 'Lisbon when you tell me boring stuff I set them free immediately'.. for what, overcrowding was it?"_

_"That's different, that's strictly boring __work__ related stuff."_

_"Okay. Then where do you categorize this?"_

_"Under personal, of course. More specifically in the Lisbon room."_

_"I have a whole room?"_ Her eyes gleamed as if the concept of her being a part of his life, to the point where she had her own room in his memory palace, was still unreal to her.

_"No."_ He shot her down but continued quickly. _"I'd call it more of a suite actually. I have a lot of stuff to fill into that room... Now more than ever. I'm actually thinking of having a contractor take a look at expanding it. Add a few extra rooms here and there, maybe even a balcony."_

_"Can't you do it yourself?"_

_"I wouldn't wanna tear down any load bearing walls by accident, now would I. It could be a disastrous mess that I'd have to clean up."_

_"You could hire a maid to do it for you, you know." _

_"Nah, I don't want someone to snoop through my most precious belongings. She might steal the silverware or something."_

_"There's silverware in my suite?"_ She asked incredulously.

_"Well of course. How else would I memorize the way you eat."_

_"The way I eat?!"_ Now he was just being ridiculous she thought, not that this whole conversation wasn't somewhat ridiculous to start with.

_"Yes."_ He said in such a convincing tone that he sounded almost serious.

_"You haven't memorized all the times we've eaten something together, right? I mean that would just be plain stupid. If that's not useless information, I don't now what is. If I had a memory palace that's the first thing that would end up in the dustbin."_

_"Aren't you being unnecessarily hard on your cute eating habits?"_

She crossed her arms defiantly in front of her. _"Okay so tell me. How do I eat?"_

_"Let's see. It differs depending on what kind of food it is, but if it has to be using cutlery you always grab the fork with your right hand and poke at anything green, like lettuce or broccoli, take a few bites before shifting the fork to the left hand and taking up the knife slicing a big piece of whatever meat there's on the plate and then..."_

_"Stop it! I so do not do that." _She wasn't angry, she just didn't like the feeling of being that predictable.

_"Maybe not conscious, but that is the pattern you make."_

_"Okay but if that's my "pattern" of eating, then you wouldn't have to memorize every time we eat something, I mean according to you this is what I do every time I eat."_

_"No, no not at all, this is just your basic pattern. Then there are all the times when you depart from your normal path so to speak. Like last Wednesday at lunch where you ate all your salad before even touching the beef, or last month we were in Hedwig Village for a case and one of the days you only ordered a steak with a small side of fries and lots of steak sauce, and then there's the soups and of course there are days where you eat things like hotdogs or burgers and that's in a whole other category."_

_"Let me guess. Finger food."_

_"No but close. It's in the 'Lisbon-looks-so-cute-when-she-gets-grease-all-over-the-place category."_

_"Oh haha, very amusing Jane."_

She mocked him but he just smiled confidently at his own cleverness.

This conversation all though strange had made Lisbon a little curious as to know what else Jane had stored away about her in his roomy brain._ "So now we're at it, what else is in this room besides my strange eating habits?"_

_"Let's see... There's the way your hair glistens in the morning sunlight and how it falls down your back in perfect soft curls, and the way the wind plays with it, and how when its wet the curls stick to your freckled skin."_

_"Hmm."_ She said thoughtfully._ "I never knew you were such a fan of my hair."_

_"You don't know the half of it."_ He said and tucked an errand strand of her dark hair behind her ear. His hand lingered on her cheek and she leaned into it for a bit, closing her eyes as he gently caressed her with his thumb.

She opened her eyes again as he removed his hand. _"So basically what you're saying is that "my suite" is a lumber room."_

_"Not at all my dear. It may sound like mundane observations of one human being, but together they all form a bigger picture."_

_"Yeah and how's that?" _

_"If you fit all these little pieces together they transform into the perfection that's you."_ He lifted her up just a little so she was hovering above the floor and swirled her around like a child.

She squealed in delight. _"I hope you don't have my weight stored in there." _

He sat her down again. _"Why I do actually it fluctuates between one hundred and th..."_

_"Aaand thank you, that's enough information!"_

_"You asked." _He said matter of factly.

_"Technically I didn't. I just wanted to know if you had __calculated my weight into the equation of lifting me up and carrying me around like that... Old man like you, we can't have you getting backaches on my account."_

_"Oh you worry too much. You're as light as a feather. And as for me being old, I would like to think that I have at least a few good years left in me." _

_"I'm sure you have plenty, old man."_ She snarked.

He laughed and picked her up again. _"Hey put me down. I mean it. Or you're gonna be in so much trouble."_

_"I'd like to see you try and be troublesome, you don't have it in you my dear."_

_"Then it's good you have more than enough for the both of us, eh." _She beamed at being the witty one.

_"I should think so." _He put her down very gently on the bed and hovered over her whispering very quietly in her ear: _"because this is one thing you'll never convince me of otherwise..."_

Then he kissed her forehead. _"There's" _

Kissed her left eye. _"Not"_

Kissed her right eye. _"One" _

Kissed her right cheek. _"Bad" _

Kissed her nose. _"Bone" _

Kissed her left cheek. _"In"_

Kissed her chin. _"Your"_

Kissed her mouth. _"Body"._

He willfully lifted himself up and away from her, so he had a better view into her forest green eyes. _"Hey.."_ Her sounded displeased at the sudden lack of contact. _"Where do you think you're going?"_

_"I was just.."_ But before he could give her a reason she had reached up, grabbed a hold of his collar and pulled him down to her again. She crushed her lips against his. This was definitely one of those moments that would go in the memory bank or in his case memory palace for later scrutiny.

After a while of tongue wrestling they stopped. Both being physically and mentally exhausted after the day they'd had, nothing more was going to happen tonight. They changed clothes, followed by their nightly routines. Then got into the crisp motel bed snuggling up to each other until Lisbon was lying sprawled halfway across Jane. His arm rested securely underneath her body so he at any moments notice could pull her closer.

Absentmindedly he stroked her right arm just above her bandages. It didn't hurt that much, and whatever pain it did cause, Lisbon swallowed it dutifully, knowing that he probably wasn't even aware of what he was doing, it was an unconscious act of affection. They'd had a few close calls over the years, and afterwards the need to be close to each other always presented itself. For years they'd both denied themselves that pleasure, but now it was their prerogative. And if soothing her soothed him, she was not going to deny him that.

It seemed impossible, but she managed to snuggle even closer to him. Head resting on his bare chest, she closed her eyes, her lashes tickling him for no more than a millisecond, but it still made him smile, she could feel it. She relaxed and breathed in the scent that was so distinctively his.

He had stopped rubbing her arm. _"Comfortable?"_ He asked.

_"Mhm."_ Was all the answer he got.

She could hear his heart beating. Thumb, thumb. A steady rhythm.

_"Lisbon?"_ He said, voice quiet and soothing so he didn't disturb her slumber too much. _"I'm glad you were right."_

He wasn't sure if she'd heard him, or if she was already on a fast-track to dreamland, until she mumbled: _"I know."_

He smiled, pulled her closer still and kissed her temple. Blinds or no blinds, curtains or steel reinforced doors, or maybe a big watchdog, none of that mattered..., as long as they had each other they were going to survive.

* * *

**A/N:** This was supposed to be just a little something short - about blinds, of all things - but it got a little out of hand and turned into this silly thing. My muse works in mysterious ways sometimes.


End file.
